The sun rose over the stone and concrete shrub of the city. Peeking through its layers, the rays finally touched Sheila's sleeping eyes.
She turned slowly under the sheets to nap just a little longer. She felt so deliciously drowsy and exhausted. The bed was soft, the sheets were smooth, she slipped her hand over the waist of her lover and kissed him gently on the back of his neck.
This was romance. This was the end of a long, slow darkness, a long caged bird finally in flight. Her lover moved in response to her kiss, turning around and nuzzling her neck with his mouth, hands slowly rediscovering the contours of her body.
Sin or no, this was all the heaven she ever needed.
Sheila was moderately proud of her looks. A more narcissistic woman would have been obsessed with them, but the only thing Sheila really prided herself on was her wild and rebellious nature as well as a desire to take risks and follow her own mind.
It was strange then that she had ended up where she was. It had been one year since her marriage. Somehow with her busy schedule with a top international airline, it had seemed a good idea to let her parents decide who she was going to marry.
It seemed to work for a while. Rahul was a great guy. An engineer in the army, she liked him from the moment they first met. A short engagement later, they got married in a private ceremony in their common hometown. A honeymoon in Malaysia followed and soon she was pregnant with their baby.
In the first few months of the maternity leave the break felt good. Slowly though, the monotony of being a stay at home wife started creeping in. Rahul was not exactly the guy she thought he was. While more than happy to go on short trips and take her out occasionally, he had what she could only describe as a stunning lack of imagination in bed.
She often looked at herself naked in the mirror as her stomach swelled with the baby. She still looked as good as any of the girls she saw in the adult movies that she had watched out of fascination in her younger days.
Her lips were pink and moist, her skin white and translucent. When her hair was open and falling around her breasts, heavy with milk, she looked like some kind of moon goddess of the ancients.
But she didn't feel like a goddess in the nights. She felt like a piece of meat that was briefly groped and drooled on before being put aside for later use. She did her best to not let it affect her but inside she was unraveling.
It alarmed her once she realized that she was suffering from symptoms of depression. It became difficult to get out of bed in the morning and the smallest things would annoy her. She had read online that if she were depressed during pregnancy, it would affect the baby too. It made her cry, but she had to wipe her tears before Rahul got back home.
Six months had passed now the baby bump was somewhat noticeable on her otherwise slim figure. Despite talking to her friends about everything, she was not able to chalk her moodiness up to hormones. It was like she was not herself anymore and had become this sort of mime with a smiling face painted on. She knew that for her sake and the baby's, she had to find a way out of this abyss.
It so happened that Rahul was scheduled for a six week long training in another city. Not wanting to be alone for any period of time in her state, she insisted that she go with him. He agreed and they fixed it up so Sheila would stay in a serviced apartment near the training and Rahul could come and see her a couple of times a week.
She was hopeful that being able to explore a new city would give her some measure of respite from the boredom. She went out shopping one day before the trip and bought a brand new DSLR so she could take some good pictures.
It was a quite a long flight to the city and they left home around 11 AM in the morning and after a layover in between reached at 5 PM in the evening. She watched the clouds through the window for the entire duration of the trip. They reminded her about how much she loved to fly. She had wanted to get a private license and fly small commercial planes but that seemed a distant dream now.
They took a cab to the apartment and later went out for dinner. Sheila felt a little bad that she wouldn't see Rahul for a few days at the same time it was a bit of a relief too. It was not easy to share a life with someone you couldn't even share your desires with.
The next day Rahul had to leave at 6 AM. She woke up early to make him tea and say goodbye before taking a shower and sitting down to plan her day ahead.
She was torn between going to a mall to shop or going to a famous park to take pictures. Finally she decided to do both the former at night and the latter in the daytime.
After having a delicious brunch at a popular local cafe, she took a cab to the park.
It felt a little awkward being there alone, just on her own, without any friends or family. To make it worse, she had not counted on the day becoming cloudy and she felt quite cold. It was still a beautiful place to be in however, so she took out the camera and tried to shoot some pictures.
Unfortunately, when she switched it on the display wasn't working. When she pressed the button, there would be a shutter sound but no image would come on screen. After 5 minutes of trying she heard a voice behind her.
"You might want to take the lens cap off. "
She turned around and there was a guy standing there, maybe about 6-7 years younger to her. Cute in a boyish kind of way, he was quite tall and muscular while still looking slender.
Feeling slightly foolish, she pressed both sides of the lens cap and took it off.
"Thanks." she muttered hoping he would go on his way, but instead he came closer.
"New camera?" he asked, "You know how to use it?"
"Kind of... " She said trying to click a picture but having the flash pop up instead.
He shook his head.
"Let me help you out with the first couple and you can take it from there. "
He took the camera from her reluctant hands and quickly fiddled with the various dials and buttons and was soon clicking away. In 5 minutes he had taught her the basics of zooming and focusing.
"You're quite good." She said, a little grudgingly "Professional?"
"Not really," he replied with a wink "Just hang out here on the weekends to meet all the beautiful women."